AT&T HTC Freestyle non-smartphone will be available on February 13 for $99.99

Last month, HTC quietly unveiled the Freestyle, a phone running on the Brew platform, and therefore not technically considered a smartphone. This handset was to be sold by AT&T in the US.

And today AT&T has officially announced it, along with its release date and price. The HTC Freestyle is referred to by AT&T as being a ‘quick messaging phone’. The Freestyle will be available on February 13 in AT&T stores and online. It will cost $99.99 (after a $50 mail-in rebate) with a new two-year contract.

The HTC Freestyle is supposed to be a cheap touchscreen phone meant to introduce those who are against smartphones to the touchscreen mania. It even has HTC Sense on board, as well as FriendStream. However, at this price, only the anti-smartphone maniacs (are there any?) will buy it. See, this was supposed to be a very affordable handset, but it ended up costing exactly the same amount as the HTC Inspire 4G – AT&T’s first 4G phone and its highest-end Android device yet, which also launches on February 13. So why AT&T thought that pricing a low-end featurephone at exactly the same level as a high-end feature-packed smartphone was a good idea is anyone’s guess.